Background
Jason Davis challenged an enhancement to his sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The enhancement applied because he had three previous convictions for violent felonies under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Davis argued that an Arkansas conviction for second-degree battery should not count as a violent felony.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the modified categorical approach to review the Arkansas statute. The district court relied on a charging document, a plea statement, and the transcript of the plea hearing. The transcript confirmed that Davis pleaded guilty to a version of second-degree battery that required purposefully causing serious physical injury. The court found this offense constitutes a crime of violence under the Sentencing Guidelines and a violent felony under the statute. The court rejected Davis’s argument regarding the accuracy of the charging document, noting the plea transcript clarified that the prosecutor dropped the habitual-offender enhancement.
What it means going forward
This decision reinforces that Arkansas second-degree battery convictions count as violent felonies for federal sentencing enhancements when the underlying facts show purposeful infliction of serious physical injury.